


Five Times Peter Thought Tony Was Going For A Hug, And One Time He Was

by OneLastTime



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things, Attempt at Humor, Avengers Tower, Gen, Hugs, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Poor Peter Parker, Pre-Spider-Man: Homecoming, captain america psas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-05-02 00:24:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14532639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneLastTime/pseuds/OneLastTime
Summary: Exactly what it says on the tin. Five times Peter thought Tony was going for a hug, and the one time he actually was, because Peter Parker needs more hugs in his life.Spans mid-Homecoming to Infinity War (in later chapters).





	1. Prologue

The first time Peter was invited to the Avengers Tower, he was high-key freaking out. The actual Tony Stark was letting him into his actual house to work on his actual superhero suit. He was hyped. He spent all morning with May trying to figure out what to wear, and after he got so frustrated he almost started crying, May took over completely and threw some clothes at him.

Mr Stark had texted him the day before, while he was in Geography, inviting him to come up to the Tower so he could mess around with the suit, try and make it better. Or something. The text was pretty vague. "the tower 2:30 tmrw" was all it said. Peter assumed it was about the suit but it could totally be to meet other Avengers! He might finally be a proper part of the gang.

He chose to walk from the station, and on the way, he walked slowly so he could appreciate all the sights around him. He was more than an hour early, so he figured stretching out the walk time was probably a good idea. He made a quick stop at a bakery when he saw a sign in the window advertising honey mustard croissants, which were two things he didn't think would work well together, but turns out it was actually pretty damn good.

Finally, after turning a ten minute walk into almost an hour of people-watching and window shopping, he finally arrived at the Tower's front doors. Now that he was here, he actually didn't know how to get in. Like, yeah, he could walk in and talk to a receptionist but how believable is it that a random fifteen year old kid is legitimately meeting Tony Stark? He couldn't even reliably say why he was there. The Stark Internship might be a good cover, but if anyone asked what the internship actually entailed, he'd have no idea. He'd just have to get inside another way.

He looked up at the building again. Surely a skyscraper this tall would have some kind of rooftop terrace thing, right? All he had to do was get up there and work his way down til he found Mr Stark. He glanced around for a suitable alley to change into his suit, and he saw the perfect one between a rundown kebab shop and a cafe. As he ducked behind a conveniently placed dumpster, he swung off his backpack and started to change.

He had just removed his jeans when he heard a voice yell out.

"Hey! Kid!" An angry sounding man yelled. "No pissing in my alleyway, get outta here."

Peter looked up. "Hey, uh, I'm not- I know it looks like that, but I'm really-"

"I don't wanna hear it, kid," he snapped. "Just pull your pants up and scram."

"Alright, okay, yep, doing that right now, I'll just... yeah." Peter quickly got dressed and slung his backpack over his shoulder and hurried past the angry shop owner.

Alright, he thought. Just have to get changed somewhere else, that's not a problem.

Turns out, it was a problem. He scoured the area, and any alleys he thought were suitable, upon closer inspection, definitely weren't. One had a rotting animal of some kind in it, getting picked apart by birds, another housed a sleeping man Peter didn't want to disturb, and one had a super cute dog that tried to attack him the second he got too close.

He was running out of time now. He only had ten minutes before he was supposed to be at the Tower, and he couldn't figure out how to get in. He didn't want to be late on his first day! Tony would murder him. He might even stop helping him entirely, or take away his suit. He needed to find a way into that building, now.

He entered a small coffeeshop and looked around. A cashier noticed him and asked, "you need something, kid?"

"Yeah," he said. "Do you have a bathroom in here I can use real quick? I promise I won't be long, I just really need the bathroom, please."

He was shifting his weight from foot to foot nervously, and tapping his fingers against his leg as he stood. He needed this.

The lady at the counter looked him up and down, before sighing. "Look, kid," she said. "I know you think you can get anything because you're young and nobody suspects you, but my cousin was a junkie, and trust me, you're not doing a very good job of hiding it. My bathroom is for customers only, not teenagers looking to shoot up."

Peter blinked. "What? I-I'm not a junkie! I just need the bathroom, that's all!"

"Yeah? And what do you need it for?" She asked.

"Um, I need it so I can go to the bathroom?" He said, sounding unsure of himself. "I don't do drugs, I promise."

"Just get out, son," she said. "I hope you get help when you're ready to admit you need it, but right now you need to leave or I'm going to call the cops."

"Wh-what? The cops?" You really don't need to-"

"Now, kid!"

Peter yelped and hightailed it out of the store. Him, an addict? May would kill him if he ever did drugs. He wouldn't even know where to get drugs! That lady was intense.

He glanced at the time on his phone. Shit. He only had two minutes before he was officially late. What was he going to do? He couldn't walk in the front doors, he couldn't get changed so he could scale the building, what if Mr Stark thought he was unreliable because he couldn't even get there on time? He felt a lump in his throat and his eyes started to water, against his wishes. He wasn't going to cry over this, he was fine, he'd get there, somehow, even though he only had a minute and no way of getting inside and oh shit it was 2:30.

He was so dead. He started half-jogging to the Tower, unlocking his phone to apologise to Mr Stark. Wait. What if he rang him and explained the whole thing? There's no way he'd be mad if he knew what was going on, right? It was worth a try.

He opened his contacts and called Mr Stark. As it rang for longer and longer, Peter was getting more freaked out. What if he didn't answer?

Finally, he picked up. "Parker?"

"Oh my god, Mr Stark, I'm so sorry, I tried to get to the Tower on time - I was early! And then I couldn't get in because how do I explain why I'm there and if they start asking questions I don't know what I'd say so then I was going to climb up the building and get to the roof but then I couldn't change into my suit and there was a dog that nearly bit me and a dude thought I was pissing in an alley and-"

"Peter." Tony said.

"And I went to find a bathroom and this lady thought I was on drugs and I promise I'm not on drugs and," Peter felt tears begin to well up in his eyes and his voice start to break. "I didn't want to be late because I don't want to get kicked out and I-I don't want to disappoint you and I just-"

"Peter!" Tony yelled. "Take a breath, kid, it's fine. Now, as much as I love the ramblings of teenagers, want to give me that again in ten words?"

Peter sniffed and wiped his eyes. "...I don't know how to get in your building."

Peter heard Mr Stark reply to him, both in the phone, and behind him. "You call me and ask next time, kiddo."

He turned around, and there was Tony Stark, Iron Man, the coolest guy ever, right behind him.

"Holy shit," he whispered.

"Hey, language," Tony admonished. "What would Cap say about that?"

"I get to meet Captain America?" Peter gasped. "Are you kidding? Does he know about me? What did you tell him? What about the others?"

"You're part of the junior gang, kid," he said. "You'll meet them all eventually. But for right now, let's get you into the Tower. You're already late."

Peter quickly tried to explain himself. "But I couldn't get in and I couldn't change and-"

He looked up. Mr Stark was grinning at him, clearly messing with him.

"I hate you," Peter mumbled.

"Impossible, everyone loves me," Tony said. "Now, let's go. How do you feel about flying?"

"Flying? I don't-" A scream cut off Peter's thought as Mr Stark grabbed onto him and flew into the air towards the Tower in the armour.

It was unnerving and terrifying and Peter felt dizzy, but he stayed stuck to the armour. His eyes were screwed shut and by the time they landed, Tony had to pry his fingers off him. Peter staggered a little when he hit solid ground, and felt his stomach protest.

"That was just a treat," Tony said. "Next time, you'll have a card and ID and it'll let you-"

Peter interrupted him by bending over slightly and throwing up remnants of honey mustard croissant and his breakfast that morning, right onto the feet of the Iron Man armour. He'd apologise, but he was a bit busy emptying his stomach.

Once he was done, he glanced up at Tony, and asked, "does this mean I'm fired?"

Tony opened the back of the armour and stepped out of it, putting distance between him and Peter's vomit.

"No, kid, you're not fired." Peter was relieved. "However, your first lesson is going to be entirely practical and cleaning-based. Can't have your sick stuck in the armour for too long or it'll start to smell."

With that, Tony draped an arm over Peter's shoulders and guided him to the door that led to inside the rest of the Tower.

Oh jeez, Peter thought. Let's hope the rest of my time here isn't as bad as that? Although, how bad can the rest even be? Surely it's only uphill from here, right?

Right.


	2. The First Not-Hug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the previous chapter's shenanigans and the start of the 5+1 things (finally)

After cleaning the vomit off Mr Stark's suit (which was the grossest thing in the world and put Peter off flying forever), Peter's visit to the Tower was actually really fun. He got his photo taken for his ID card ("am I allowed to smile? Am I not allowed to smile? How many shots do I get at- wait, did you just take the photo? I was talking, c'mon we have to redo it. You can't? But... Alright, yes, no, sorry. I'll stop wasting time, I'll just, um. Take my ID and go.") and got to explore some of the Tower.

He got a quick tour that mainly consisted of opening the doors of the elevator at random floors and having a quick glance at what was on that level. He saw an absolutely awesome gym that spread to the edges of the building and had so many obstacles and things to train on, Peter had to stop himself from darting out and testing everything out.

He was also shown his temporary room, in case he ever spent the night. It was about three quarters up the building, and was basically an apartment. It was bigger than where he lived now, actually. He had a fully stocked kitchen, lounge room with a ridiculously big TV, and a double bed in the bedroom, which Peter was psyched about. He had a single bed at home, and despite the expensive furniture and other stuff, the bed size is what made him feel like he was living the high life.

Of course, he was still holding out for being able to meet some of the Avengers properly, since he only met some of them when he fought them, but he was pretty sure half of them were meant to be bad guys now. But still, he would've loved to meet them. He had the biggest crush on Thor growing up, it was unbelievable. He'd spent his limited pocket money when he was little paying for a Thor mask and fake hammer, and he felt like the coolest kid in the world with them.

They finally reached the floor of the lab, or workshop, Peter wasn't quite sure what it was. It was huge and seemed neverending, and everything was in pristine condition, and there were real robots just hanging around. One of the friendlier bots came up to him and Peter hesitantly pet it where he assumed its head was.

"No, don't give him attention," Mr Stark said when he heard the content whirring of the robot. "He'll just expect it every time you're here. Never should've given him a personality..."

As Mr Stark trailed off, Peter kept petting the little robot. It was cute. He wondered absently if Mr Stark could make a realistic robot dog or cat. That'd be cool. Or terrifying. Maybe it would be like the Furby used to be. He had one when he was really young, and it gave him so many nightmares that it had to be thrown away. Even still, Peter couldn't sleep alone for weeks afterwards.

As Mr Stark settled into a stool at a workbench, he gestured for Peter to do the same.

"Ready to get to work?"

\--

All Peter and Mr Stark ended up doing was tinker with the suit and see what could be done to improve it. Peter had to stop Mr Stark from adding external weapons and bombs to it, claiming that it would make the suit too bulky and not as lightweight. He actually just didn't want to lose the feeling that he was doing everything himself. If he had a fully automated suit, that feeling would be taken away from him.

As things stood now, Mr Stark was sitting at a workbench doing some kind of science thing, and Peter was wandering around the lab. He was honestly sort of bored. They'd been there for hours, and apart from occasionally trying the suit on to try out a feature Mr Stark had been working on, there wasn't much for him to do. He was hoping he'd be more involved in the inventing process, but he guessed he'd have to show Mr Stark what he could do later on. Mr Stark seemed to work best alone, and after the first three hours, asking endless questions even lost its fun.

He'd been told he wasn't allowed to leave the floor they were on, so Peter lazily walked in circles on the ceiling. He was decidedly not thinking about the English assignment he had due next week, and definitely not about his super secret, not obvious at all crush on an unknown person that nobody could ever guess.

"Hey, poindexter," Mr Stark called from the other side of the room.

Peter hopped down from the ceiling and dashed over to him.

"Yeah? What's up?" He asked excitedly. "Do you need me to try the suit on again, or do you want my ideas about-"

Mr Stark cut him off with a wave of his hand. "No, kid. It's late, you need to get home before your aunt thinks I've kidnapped you."

Peter looked at his watch. Mr Stark was right, it was 10:30 on a school night. May, ever since he started sneaking out to patrol, and his grades started to suffer, had put a curfew of 11pm on school nights into place. She thought he was constantly at Ned's, or out with friends. Of course, he couldn't just tell her what he was doing out so late, or else she'd freak, so he tried his best to always be back on time.

"Oh no," he said. "Mr Stark, I have a curfew! I'm never gonna get home by eleven, can you please drop me off, please, please, please? Otherwise I have to catch the train or web there but I won't be on time and May will be mad at me and, hey, she might blame you and then I wouldn't be able to come here anymore so, y'know, it's in your best interests?"

He grinned up at Mr Stark, trying to appear as innocent and young as he could. Mr Stark looked at him, raised an eyebrow, and said nothing. After shifting his expression to one of sadness, and he forced his eyes to start watering, he finally gave up.

Mr Stark sighed. "No throwing up on me this time, kid. And don't make a habit of this."

\--

When they arrived at Peter's house fifteen minutes later, luckily he wasn't feeling as sick as before, but he still felt a little queasy. He held his backpack in his right hand, and trying to steady his stomach with the other.

He took deep breaths and shut his eyes, then quickly opened them again when he realised that only made his head spin more. He needed to go lie down and have some water. He didn't know why he only got sick when he was flying, and not when he was webswinging all through the city.

Maybe it's like carsickness, he thought. Peter never got carsick until he started learning how to drive, but now, whenever he's not the one driving the car, he gets it.

Dragging himself back to the present, Peter heard Mr Stark mention the time, and how he should probably get inside so May doesn't murder him.

When thinking about it later, Peter would blame the following events completely on how sick he felt. He wasn't thinking straight, so he couldn't be held accountable for his actions. At least, that's the story he's sticking with.

He looked over to Mr Stark to say goodbye, and maybe ask when he wanted Peter to come over again, and saw that he was reaching his arm out towards him. Peter did what came naturally and dropped his backpack to go into the goodbye hug, but just as he wrapped his arms around Mr Stark, he heard-

"Not a hug, Parker. I'm just getting the door for you, your hands were kinda occupied."

Peter sprung away. "Of course! Yeah, I knew that. Why would I think that that'd be something- I'll just, uh. I'll see you later?"

He felt his cheeks heat up, and he was sure he was red as anything. With that, he picked up his backpack and hurried inside, closing the door behind him and immediately cringing.

Why would he think Mr Stark was going for a hug? Jeez, he was so stupid sometimes.

Of course Mr Stark wouldn't want to hug him, he was just some kid from Queens. Not hug material at all. Actually, no. It wasn't a big deal. That definitely wasn't a big deal. It's forgettable, Mr Stark has probably already forgotten about it. If he never mentioned it again, that was no problem. It would be like it never happened.

"Alright, Peter," he murmured to himself. "Never doing that again, alright? No hugs."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm writing 750 words every day to improve my writing so updates will be pretty frequent lads, expect the next chapter in two to three days.


	3. The Exhaustion-Driven Hug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter's having trouble balancing school, Spiderman duties, sleep, and seeing his friends, so he ends up neglecting the other three while he focuses on his patrols.

Months after the Hug Incident (Peter insisted on the capital letters), Peter had finally managed to look Mr Stark in the eye without feeling awkward. Although it had been a few months, the two had only been together maybe three or four times in that time.

He understood why Mr Stark couldn't have him over every day, or even every weekend, but Peter still felt an irrational thirst to prove himself, and show Mr Stark that he was just as useful as the other Avengers. In this vein, he stayed out later patrolling, and went out every night.

May had expressed her concerns at first, but ever since she found out that Peter was Spiderman, made allowances for him to be out later. She made his new curfew 1am on school nights, with a maximum of three patrols a week.

Peter figured out pretty quickly that as long as he didn't make too much noise when he came back, he could sneak in when May was asleep and not raise her suspicions of when he was getting back. As well as that, he also told her he was staying at Ned's more often, and that would give him an excuse to go out the entire night.

Of course, his grades did drop a bit, but that was fine, since helping people was more important than school tests. He didn't think there were many job options for superheroes these days. He kind of just wanted to keep going as he had been, and maybe work with Mr Stark full time after he graduated.

The weeks of late nights and rushed schoolwork meant that Ned and MJ were both sending him looks at school, and Ned in particular kept asking Peter to hang out outside of school, but Peter had to say no - he couldn't miss a single day of patrolling, otherwise he'd see a news article about someone being robbed or murdered, and know that he could've stopped it if he was there.

He also had his definitely not obvious crush on MJ, but he kept squashing those feelings down. If she even liked him back, it would be too dangerous for her to date Spiderman. He wouldn't forgive himself if she got hurt because of him.

As he walked into English one day and took his usual seat two thirds back, he felt his phone buzz. As Mr C started his lecture on the structure of sonnets, Peter slipped his phone out of his pocket and checked his texts. He had another message from Mr Stark, that simply said "come over after school". As Peter started to type out a reply, his phone was snatched out of his hand.

"Confiscated, Parker," the teacher said. "Stay back after class."

Peter groaned and let his head fall to his desk.

Great, he thought. Now Mr Stark thought he was ignoring him. He spent the rest of the lesson doodling in his notes and looking out the window, searching for any sign of a red and gold blur, come to pick him up after he didn't respond. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Iron Man.

"Peter!" The teacher called. "Can you tell me the difference between an iambic and trochaic meter?"

He snapped his head back towards the front of the class. Oh. He hadn't been paying attention for the entire lesson.

"Um," he started. "I, uh, don't know?"

"Pay attention in my class please, Mr Parker." He said. "As I'm sure those of you that were listening would know, an iambic meter is that which stresses every second syllable starting from the second, whereas trochaic is the opposite. You'll find that most of..."

Peter quickly took down some notes of what the teacher was saying. He didn't want to fall too behind in class, even if it was getting harder to pay attention lately. He'd only had a few hours of sleep over the past couple nights, and it was taking its toll. He had never been a coffee drinker, but he was thinking about buying himself one before meeting with Mr Stark, or maybe even just at lunch to get through his last few classes.

Once English finally ended, he walked up to the teacher's desk to get his phone back. Mr C nodded at the chair opposite his desk.

"Sit down, Peter," he said gently.

Confused, Peter sat. He just wanted his phone back, not have a conversation. Besides, he was going to be late for his next class.

"I won't keep you long, I know you have other classes to attend," Mr C started. "But I've noticed that recently, your attention has been slipping along with your grades, and I can see you haven't been getting enough sleep."

"Sir, I'm fine, I promise," Peter reassured.

"Regardless, I've organised for you to see Mrs Hill after school today. Now, before you-"

"The school counselor? What?"

"-panic," Mr C continued. "I want you to know that it doesn't mean anything's wrong. I just want you to be the best you can be, and lately that's been slipping away."

"But I can't see her today!" Peter protested. "I have the Stark Internship, I can't be late for that."

Mr C gave him another Look. Capital L.

"Peter, you've been leaving school as soon as the bell rings for the past few weeks, without your friends. If you're constantly leaving for the Internship as soon as school finishes every day, I'm sure Mr Stark won't mind if you miss out on one day. Unless you've not been going to the Internship, and instead sneaking off to do... other things?"

Mr C raised his eyebrows, and Peter knew he was trapped. He couldn't tell him he was going to see Mr Stark, because that would be too easy to fact-check, and obviously telling him about Spiderman was out of the question, so Peter said nothing.

"Can I have my phone back, sir?" He asked.

As soon as the phone hit his hand, Peter was out the door.

"That'll be detention if you don't see Mrs Hill, Mr Parker!" Mr C called from the classroom.

Ugh.

He tapped out a text to Mr Stark, apologising (probably too much) and saying he couldn't make it. His thumb hovered over the "send" button, and at the last second, he decided against it and deleted the message. If Mr Stark couldn't count on him to be there when he needed him, how was he going to take him seriously? What's one detention, anyway? It'll be fine.

Rubbing at his eyes, Peter trudged along to his next class. God, he was tired.

\--

The rest of the day passed in much the same way that the start did. He fell asleep in third period and woke up with a jolt when Flash threw a wad of paper at him. He looked up at the board, and saw that his vision was blurring at the edges ever so slightly. He shook his head to try and clear it, and then raised his hand.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" He asked.

After being approved, he staggered out of the class and headed to the front doors. He needed energy, or else he wasn't going to make it through the rest of the day. Nowhere in the school sold energy drinks or coffee, obviously, so he headed towards a local deli to get himself one.

After double-checking that nobody was watching, he slipped out of the doors and towards the border of the grounds. On the way, he felt himself wake up slightly thanks to the cold air, but still he hurried to the deli.

When he was a block away, he heard the faint sounds of a fight. He could hear a kid crying and a gruff sounding adult threatening them.

Not waiting another moment, he ducked behind a building to get changed into the Spiderman suit. As soon as he pulled on the mask, he heard Karen's voice.

"Peter, your heart rate and blood pressure are more elevated than usual, and you seem to be less coordinated than usual. Are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, yeah, Karen, I'm fine," He said, brushing her off. "I have to help that kid."

As Peter vaulted up and swung off the surrounding buildings, he heard Karen's increasingly worried tone.

"Your accuracy is off by thirty percent, I do not think it's wise to continue with your current course of action."

"You almost crashed into that wall - do you need me to call Me Stark if you're feeling unwell?"

"No, Karen, don't call him," Peter got out, as he got closer to where he heard the kid's cries.

However, when he got there, there was nobody in sight, and the noise had stopped too. He heard his ears ringing and his overly laboured breathing, but no struggles anywhere nearby.

"I swear it was here..." He murmured.

"Incoming call from Ned Leeds."

"Huh?" Peter said. "Uh, yeah, answer it."

As soon as the call connected, Peter was hit with a wall of noise.

"Peter, you have to get back here, you're in so much trouble." He started. "Mr C saw you sneak out and he interrogated me about where you are, and he doesn't believe that I don't know. He's pissed about you ditching the meeting with the counselor - speaking of, why didn't you tell me you were meeting with her? I feel like I haven't talked to you properly in ages, man. I can't be your guy in the chair with no info."

Peter brought one hand up to his head and rubbed his eyes. "Ned, don't worry about it, I just went to get an energy drink."

"Peter, school's over - you've been gone half the day."

"What?" He exclaimed. "But I..."

"The time is currently 2:50pm." Karen announced. "You have been wearing the suit for approximately 40 minutes."

"But I left at like, lunchtime." Peter said, confused.

Ned could hear the confusion in his voice. "You sure you're alright, Peter? Maybe you should go home and sleep for a while, take tomorrow off if you need to."

Peter shook his head. "I can't, I have to go see Mr Stark today. Thanks though. Karen, end call."

"Peter-" Ned was cut off as the call disconnected.

"Now," Peter said. "Let's get to the HQ."

Later, Peter was amazed that he managed to get to headquarters in one piece in his condition. His eyes kept slipping shut and only opened again when Karen spoke.

He blearily stepped through the doors of Avengers HQ, and mumbled something to the receptionist about seeing Tony Stark, still in full costume, then passed out right there on the floor.

\--

He was only out for a few minutes, woken up by his newfound Spidey Sense, as he'd taken to calling it, screaming at him. He opened his eyes and saw a blurry figure above him. He made an effort to get away from the unknown man, but then realised his Spidey Sense had quietened. It was Mr Stark.

"It's just me, Spidey," he said. "C'mon, let's get you inside."

Mr Stark held out his hand to help Peter up, but Peter didn't think he was really up to walking. He gripped his hand and let himself be pulled up, but as Mr Stark went to steady him, Peter let himself almost collapse into Mr Stark, wrapping his limbs around the older man, letting himself stick to him while his eyes shut.

"Alright, kid," he heard softly. "Still wasn't going for a hug, but this time you get a free pass."

Peter later woke up in a bed in his room at headquarters. He was under the blankets, and actually felt well rested for once. He reached for his phone, and saw that it was only 7pm.

"Huh?" He said to himself.

He looked closer.

"I slept for an entire day?!" He yelped, when he saw that he arrived at HQ yesterday afternoon. "Shit, I missed school. And May will be so pissed at me!"

He sprung out of bed, noticing for the first time that he was dressed in Iron Man pyjamas. Of course. They were comfortable, though, not that he'd ever tell Me Stark that.

He burst through the doors and into the main living area, where he saw Mr Stark talking to-

"May?"

His aunt looked over at him and smiled.

"Peter! I'm glad you're alright," she said.

"Yeah, I'm fine, what are you-" he started.

"What on earth were you thinking?! Leaving school in the middle of the day, trying to be Spiderman when you were severely sleep deprived? Do you have any idea how worried I was when Tony called me and said you passed out in the middle of the room?" May wasn't yelling, but she was using her Mom Voice, lecturing him in a hard voice that left no room to argue.

Peter looked down sheepishly. "Sorry, May."

"I'm not the only one you need to apologise to. Your school rang me, you have a week's worth of detention and twice weekly sessions with the school counselor until she says you're alright." May added. "And I'll be taking your phone."

Peter looked up. "What? But my friends-"

"Have been notified and gently intimidated into making sure you stay in school and go to your detentions and appointments. Karen has been told to alert me if you're in the suit when you shouldn't be, and any time you skip out on one of your duties, that's another week you won't be able to come up here." Mr Stark joined in. "Now go home, kid, I'll see you in a few weeks."

With that, May draped an arm over Peter's shoulders and led him outside and into the car that Mr Stark had prepared. Peter got in the car and leant his head against the window, letting the vibrations of the car lull him back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm honestly having fun writing -- it hasn't been like that for ages, so I'm glad I'm enjoying it thanks to this dumb fanfic I thought up when I was half asleep the other night. Again, next chapter real soon because I have no life and this is fun.


	4. The Nervous Hug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's coming to Peter's school to make an announcment. God only knows how this will end up.

Peter was nervous. He was in the front row of the bleachers in the school gym, his foot nervously tapping out an uneven rhythm on the floor. He was sat in between MJ and Ned, the former staring towards the makeshift stage that had been constructed for today, and the latter whispering questions into Peter's ears.

"What's going to happen?"

"Do you have to give a speech?"

"Do I have to give a speech?"

"Do you think I could get an autograph from him?"

Peter glanced over at him and Ned immediately quietened. He could see how nervous Peter must be. He was pale and sweating, and he was unsuccessfully trying to will his leg to stop hopping up and down.

Ned clapped a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be fine, man, you got this. Besides, imagine what MJ would psychoanalyse out of you if you were scared of this and not nearly dying all the time."

Peter laughed weakly. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"I always am," Ned said smugly.

Peter was still scared, though. Today was the day that Tony Stark was going to visit his high school to give a presentation and introduce Peter officially as his intern, as well as give an overview of the Stark Internship program.

A few weeks before, Mr Stark had mentioned that he was thinking of creating the Stark Internship ("a real one, with interns, not just a front for babysitting superheroes - it'll get too suspicious otherwise") and bringing in more students to join the program.

Of course, Mr Stark couldn't personally teach every student himself, but there would be a weekly meeting with him to check on their progress. Pepper had apparently been very keen for the idea, mentioning that doing something like that made him seem way more mature and ready for a serious and long-term relationship.

Along with announcing that he would be opening the Internship to the public, he also dropped the bomb that the first school he went to would be Peter's. It made sense - Peter was currently his only intern and it'd make sense to show off what you can do in the program, but Peter was suspicious.

For months, ever since the incident at Washington, Flash had been hounding Peter more and more over the Internship, the Avengers, and Spiderman. Flash must've felt some kind of gratitude and adoration for Spiderman, since he was the only Avenger ("you're not a real Avenger yet, kid, you're at the kiddy table with Clint." "Hey!") that he'd met personally.

As Peter kept from interacting with Flash too much, he was only getting worse. One day, he showed up to HQ in such a bad mood, and Mr Stark didn't let go of it until he told him what the issue was. He downplayed it, but he was pretty sure Mr Stark knew that he was holding back.

It felt like Peter couldn't go a day without Flash doing or saying something to him. Recently, the digs at him had just gotten more personal. He was attacking Peter's (completely non-existent and hidden) crush on MJ, which made things awkward between them on his end. MJ, as per usual, was unphased. She was cool.

Anyway, today was the day that Mr Stark was going to show up. He'd given him strict instructions to call him Tony, to, in his words, "show that Flash kid that you're better than him on a scale that he could never understand" and try his best to act like he was completely comfortable.

They were going to showcase an invention they'd created over the past few weeks, as an example of what the Internship could offer. Peter actually had fun brainstorming it and making it, and seeing it come to life. It was actually a nice break from focusing on Spiderman all the time, if he was being honest.

Their invention didn't look like much, appearing as a flat square of brushed metal, but what it could do was pretty cool. It was mainly Peter's idea, so he felt pretty proud of his baby. He'd named it CJ and it was beautiful.

The sound of the principal clearing his throat brought Peter's mind back to the present. Everyone in the audience silenced, and the gym doors opened to allow Mr Stark to saunter in.

"That guy sure knows how to make an entrance," Ned whispered to Peter.

"Maybe, but I don't like him," MJ added from his other side.

"Didn't expect you to," Peter replied.

Mr Stark was wearing a suit that probably cost more than anything he owned, barring the Spiderman suit, and as he walked, he winked at Peter, making him even more nervous. He was definitely not cool enough to compete with Mr Stark. He was wearing a science pun t shirt and a ratty hoodie, after all.

As Mr Stark stood at the front of the crowd, he made a show of looking over the crowd, his gaze lingering on Peter for a moment longer than the rest. Peter felt his cheeks heat up.

Mr Stark started his speech, but Peter was too nervous to really pay attention. He put his hand in his pocket and felt the cool metal of CJ. As he tried to calm down, he suddenly jolted as MJ elbowed him in the ribs.

He looked up and realised everyone was watching him, including Mr Stark.

"Come on up, Peter," he said, flashing him a grin. "Let's show these kids what you can do."

Peter shakily got up and moved towards Mr Stark. He could hear Flash mutter something under his breath, but he wasn't paying enough attention to catch what he said. He was just focusing on walking to Mr Stark without falling on his face.

As he got closer, Mr Stark reached out towards him and, oh, this is how he was going to play it. He was going to show Flash that he was so tight with him that they were on a first name basis and greeting-hug basis, just to dispel any notion that he was lying about how much contact he actually got with Mr Stark.

"Hey, Mr- uh, Tony," Peter stuttered, as he went in for a quick hug.

He drew back quickly and saw Mr Stark's face, which might've looked normal to onlookers who didn't know him that well, but Peter could clearly tell that Mr Stark was making fun of him.

Peter cringed. He heard Flash barely conceal his "sugar daddy" comment in a cough.

"Not a hug?" he whispered.

"Not a hug," Mr Stark responded. "I just need CJ, kid."

Peter handed over CJ and stood beside Mr Stark as he continued with his speech.

"So, as you all know," he started. "Or as you all should know, since it's not new news, this kid here, Peter Parker, is my intern and currently only member of the Stark Internship program. However, that's going to change from now on. I'm giving you whippersnappers a chance to join him and intern with me too, if you're up to it, and are a good fit."

Peter locked eyes with Ned, still in the front row, his eyes wide and mouthing "what?" at Peter. Peter just shrugged back. He'd explain afterwards.

"We spent the last little while coming up with Peter's brainchild, CJ. Pete, if you'd do the honours." Mr Stark said, offering CJ to him.

Peter took it and set it on the ground to demonstrate its ability.

"Okay, so, uh," he started. "CJ is like a portable power station. He- I mean, it, can be keyed into your phone and laptop or whatever, and can not only charge it, but also act as a source of WiFi. It's not really that complex, it's just..."

As Peter gained momentum in his speech explaining all of CJ's features, he felt his nerves fade away. He was proud of his invention, and was glad he could show it off. Once he was done and had demonstrated the effects, Mr Stark took over again.

Mr Stark concluded his speech by draping an arm over Peter's shoulders and encouraging anyone who wanted to try out to contact his team after the presentation. Flash looked shocked in the crowd, like he wasn't believing what he was seeing.

The final words of the conclusion were spoken, and the students dutifully clapped for the presentation.

"You think that's enough to shut up your smartass bully?" Mr Stark asked out of the corner of his mouth.

Peter just snorted a laugh and nodded. "You kidding? He's never gonna shut up about this."

Long after Mr Stark was gone, MJ teased him mercilessly for mistaking an "I want something" hand gesture for a "please hug me" one, and when Peter looked at Ned for support, he raised his hands in surrender.

"I'm not fighting on this one, pal," he said.

Peter huffed. "Whatever. You're all terrible friends."

Which was, of course, when MJ mentioned that Ned had told him about the other two times he mistook something Mr Stark did for him going for a hug. Peter let his head fall to his desk as his two best friends laughed.

"I hate you both," he said, though he felt a rush of appreciation for them as they kept on talking.

He was lucky he had them as friends. Even if they did make fun of him a lot. He supposed he'd do the same too, if he were them.


	5. The Thankful Hug

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so pretend for a moment that all the Avengers are just chilling out at hq - the tentative story I'm going with is civil war is pretty much sorted out, most avengers are hanging out at hq while they find somewhere else to live (if they wanna do that), Bruce is there too, so let's go with heimdall put him back on earth immediately after Ragnarok, so that first scene of infinity war went down differently
> 
> point is, Bruce is there but the imminent threat of thanos isn't

"...and for extra credit, you can reach out to an influential person in the scientific field, and interview them on your chosen topic." Peter's science teacher finished explaining their latest assignment and Peter glanced at Ned.

"You've got this in the bag, dude," Ned said. "Miss Slade is gonna pass you for sure if you interview the actual Tony Stark."

Peter stopped and thought. "I dunno, he might not wanna be annoyed by answering some dumb questions about high school science."

Ned scoffed. "Dude, he came to our school because he heard a kid was being mean to you. He'd do anything you asked, honestly."

He gave Ned a non-committal hum in response and wondered if Mr Stark would actually want to do it. He guessed Ned was right about him doing anything for Peter, but he didn't want to push it regardless. He supposed it wouldn't hurt to ask. He had to think about what his topic was going to be before he even really thought about it, though.

"Hey, do you reckon you can get me an interview with Scarlet Witch? Not for science, just to hang out." Ned said.

In response, Peter whacked him in the arm. "No, Ned, I'm not setting you up on a date with an Avenger."

It had been a few weeks since the whole Civil War mess sorted itself out, and while they were looking for places to live, most of them settled with living in the new Avengers HQ. A lot of them were gone for ages at a time without explanation, so Peter had never seen all of them together in one place, but it was still really cool to meet some of them.

Of course, none of them knew Peter was Spiderman, they all thought he was a slightly annoying kid that Mr Stark was letting be his intern for some reason. Three was also the not-so-secret wager about if Peter was actually secretly Mr Stark's kid.

He definitely wasn't, but it was fun seeing them try to work it out. Sam, the Falcon, was the one that was most convinced they were related, whereas the Black Widow took one look at Peter and decided there was no way.

"C'mon, Peter," Ned cut into his thoughts. "We're going to the library to research."

Peter followed along and made his decision about what topic he would study. All he had to do now was see Mr Stark. And do the rest of the project, but that was the easy part. He wasn't sure Mr Stark would be keen for his idea...

\--

Peter was nervously pacing in the common room of HQ, waiting for Mr Stark to be done with... whatever he was doing. The common room was suspiciously empty today, but Peter didn't worry about it. If anything big was happening, he liked to think he'd know about it.

Finally, after what felt like hours (but was really only like fifteen minutes), Mr Stark came into the room, looking the most dishevelled Peter had ever seen him. His clothes were dirty and wrinkled, and he had grease and oil on his face and arms.

"What's wrong with you?" Peter blurted out.

"First of all, ouch, that hurts my feelings," Mr Stark said. "Second of all, I was in the workshop, working on a super cool project that you don't get to know about."

Peter ran a hand through his hair.

"Alright," he said. "Well, I, uh-"

"Wait, what?" Mr Stark asked incredulously. "You, Peter Parker, aren't even the slightest bit curious about a secret project?"

"Uh, I mean," Peter stammered. "I was kinda here to ask about something different, but, um... what are you working on?"

Mr Stark huffed and shook his head. "No, you don't get to know now."

"Um, okay? I was, uh, gonna ask you about a science project I'm doing at school?" Peter asked.

"Do you need me to cheat for you?" Mr Stark asked. "Because I will, but I did hope that you'd feel bad about asking for it. At least for a while."

My Stark wandered through to the commonunal kitchen to get himself a drink (orange juice straight from the carton - gross), Peter following along behind.

"No, it's not that. We have this project, it's pretty open, and we have to pick a topic then do research on it and for extra credit we can interview someone important in science stuff about our topic, and I was wondering-" Peter launched into his pitch.

Mr Stark cut him off. "Yep, absolutely, anything for you, my little Spiderling. What's your topic, and how much above your class do you want your grades to be? Is it a video interview? Do I have to wear a suit? Or should I wear the armour and make all your classmates jealous?"

Peter felt his cheeks heat up. "Um.. I wasn't actually... going to ask... you..."

Mr Stark looked offended. "Who else would you ask?"

Peter kept his eyes trained on the ground. This was so awkward.

"My topic is genetic splicing, and I, uh," he said. "Was gonna see if Dr Banner was free. And I know he just got back from like, space, and he doesn't know how or why, unless that was the news lying about it and he actually does, but, yeah, I figured he'd be the best person to ask."

Mr Stark looked at him.

"Oh! Not that you're not good, too, I totally would've asked you, but-" Peter added.

"It's cool, kid," Mr Stark said. "I understand why you'd want to interview a total stranger and not your superhero mentor that gave you your suit, but whatever."

Peter opened his mouth to try and protest, but Mr Stark kept going.

"Bruce is wiped out from being teleported, but he's hanging out here til he gets better, so he's a perfect captive audience for your inane questions." He finished. "Now, come here."

Peter sprung forwards and into Mr Stark's arms. 

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr Stark," he said. "I was worried you'd be offended that I didn't pick you or wouldn't let me ask him and you didn't which is super cool and-"

Mr Stark extracted himself from Peter's grip.

"'Come here' to go see Bruce," he said. "So you can ask your questions. You've either got an issue with hugs or reading people there, kid."

Peter buried his head in his hands. Of course. Again. He mumbled into his arms.

"What was that? You see, most people find that you talk clearly when your hands aren't in front of your face, funnily enough," Mr Stark said.

Peter put his hands down. "It won't happen again."

Mr Stark laughed. "Kid, I know you too well to believe that's true. Now come on, let's get you to Bruce."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also yeah lol changed my username


	6. The Post-Steve Hug

To be honest, once he got past the fact that he was talking to Captain freakin America, Peter found the situation way more hilarious than he did five minutes ago. He was standing next to Captain "call me Steve" America in one of the many living rooms in Avengers HQ, having the most awkward, stilted conversation of his life.

They had exchanged greetings and done the "important" stuff after Mr Stark introduced them, but he soon left afterwards to do god knows what. Of course, Bucky Barnes was lurking in the back of the room(Mr Stark said he never left Steve's side), but Peter doubted he was close enough to hear their conversation.

After making his way through the conversation with one of the most famous and infamous superheroes ever, Peter came to a conclusion.

Captain America was a dork.

Seriously.

He reminded Peter of those adults who have never been around kids their entire life, so they don't really know how to interact with them. Because of this, Peter got to witness Steve Rogers trying to talk to a teenager for what was likely one of the first times in a long while.

"How long ago did you first become Spiderman?" He asked, doing his best to look like he was comfortable.

Not bad on his part, Peter thought. If nothing else, it could get Peter talking about himself for a while.

"Well, uh, when I was fifteen, we went to this-" Peter started.

"You were fifteen?!" Steve blurted out. "When we fought, you were fifteen?"

Oops.

Peter nodded slightly.

"Wait, so now you're only-"

"Yeah, I'm, um, still in high school." Peter admitted.

Steve paused for a moment to take that in, and then abruptly tried to make conversation again once he realised he was taking too long thinking about Peter's age.

"So, uh, Peter," he said, a faint blush on his cheeks. "How are you doing in school? Are you, um, cool?"

Peter gave a small laugh. "I mean, I'm a secret Avenger nobody knows about, to everyone else in school, I'm just a normal nerd."

Peter felt a rush of mischief, and before he could stop himself, he said, "besides, the only way to really be cool is to follow the rules, and I clearly-"

Steve choked.

Peter didn't know what to do. He glanced at Bucky, who was staring directly at him, but didn't move to help.

Oh god, what if he killed Captain America?

"Uh, Mr Captain America, sir?" Peter said nervously, moving towards him. "Are you okay?"

Steve waved Peter's hand away. "I'm okay, it's fine, wow, I, um..."

Steve straightened himself up and looked at Peter, his face transformed from mildly pink to full on blushing.

"Do they still show those PSAs at school? Or did you find it by chance on YouTube?" He asked, and Peter could clearly see that he hoped it was the latter.

Peter decided then and there that an embarrassed Steve Rogers was his favourite Steve Rogers.

"They show at least five of them a year, with the same one every single detention." Peter grinned.

Surprisingly enough, after Steve was suitably embarrassed, Peter found it easier to keep the conversation flowing between them, and it only felt like ten minutes by the time Mr Stark came back to tell him Happy was going to drop him back home.

He'd told Steve all about his friends and his superhero-ing, and how he met Mr Stark, and Steve told him about the weird things in the future, and how much he hated making the PSAs.

Eventually, though, they had to say their goodbyes and Steve promised that they'd see each other again. Peter was freaking out internally, but he was pretty sure that it didn't come across out loud.

He also asked FRIDAY to delete the footage of that moment so nobody could disprove it, and since he didn't say anything, he guessed Mr Stark had backups.

As Steve and Bucky tracked out of the room, Peter let himself relax and almost flopped onto a nearby couch, but Mr Stark's words stopped him.

"Hey, Parker, I know you just met Cap and that leaves most people in a state of shock for a few hours, but scoot over here for a hot sec," Mr Stark said, gesturing for Peter to come close to him.

Was this finally the moment?

He followed Mr Stark's directions and, just to make sure he wasn't reading the situation wrong, he stopped a foot away from him, to confirm that Mr Stark was actually going for a hug.

When Mr Stark didn't make any outward sign of wanting Peter to move away, and in fact kept motioning for him to come closer.

Peter took the final step forwards and slipped his arms underneath Mr Stark's, and buried his face in his shoulder, mumbling his thanks for letting Peter meet Steve.

Peter felt relieved that this hug finally seemed to be the one that Mr Stark meant deliberately, he was even doing the awkward parent thing of patting his back.

Wait.

Mr Stark wasn't patting his back for comfort, he was pulling something off Peter's back that was apparently stuck to it. Peter immediately dropped his arms to his side and let Mr Stark get the offending item.

Mr Stark snorted. "Barnes approves of you, by the way, kid."

Peter spun around to look at what Mr Stark had in his hand. It was a note with scrawling handwriting on it, reading...

"'You are good. 8/10'? What?" Peter said incredulously. "How am I only an eight out of ten, first of all, and second of all, how did he get this on me? When did he write it? What-?"

Peter was confused. Bucky didn't even go anywhere near him, definitely not close enough to stick a note to his back, or so he thought.

Mr Stark raised an eyebrow. "You're living part time with a bunch of super spies and assassins. Trust me on this one, if you stop questioning everything that goes on here, it'll be a lot easier on you."

Peter supposed that was true.

"Still..." He started. "I- if, I don't-"

"Use your words, kiddo," Mr Stark said.

Peter spluttered for a bit before he got out, "how am I only an eight out of ten? Did I offend him? Did I offend Steve? Is it because I called him Steve and not Captain America or sir or something? Hey, Mr Stark, do you think you could talk to him and ask-? Wait no, don't do that, that'll seem desperate."

Mr Stark stifled a laugh and unsuccessfully tried to ruffle Peter's hair as they walked out of the living room. "I'd pay you to confront Barnes about it, kid."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I haven't been updating in a couple weeks (I think, I have no sense of time), but I hit a writer's block for a bit, and didn't have enough motivation to get through it tbh. Until today, when reading fanfic left me restless and a thought of "fuck it, I'm just gonna write" came through. Apologies if it's not as action packed or long as the previous chapters, this was the one that I had the most trouble coming up with tbh. Other contenders included when Peter told Tony he was dating MJ, or like meeting Thor (which took too much effort to explain how he was on Earth so you got this instead).
> 
>  
> 
> also lol I made an extra chapter
> 
> for reasons


	7. The Fading Hug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one time he was.

Peter felt suddenly disoriented. He had just been fighting with Mr Stark and a bunch of other Avengers (on an alien planet! How insane was that?), but now he felt... wrong. He felt like his skin was stretched too tightly across his body, and he felt too hot but he was shivering, and he didn’t know what was going on. He looked over at Mr Stark, who had thankfully survived being stabbed. He wouldn’t forgive himself if he died. Not after everything that had happened.

Peter clutched at his stomach, as waves of pain swept through him. His vision was blurring at the edges, and he felt both weightless and like it as a struggle to keep his head up. Is that what being drunk feels like? If it is, Peter doesn't want to drink (if he ever gets back home).

At once, the pain doubled and he let out a small whimper. He stumbled closer to Mr Stark in the hopes he would fix things.

“Mr Stark,” he said, the pain evident in his voice. “I don't feel so good...”

That immediately drew the attention of Mr Stark, who locked his vision onto Peter and held his arms out just in time for Peter to collapse into them.

Huh, Peter though. I'm actually getting a hug from Mr Stark, and he initiated this one.

He thought of Ned, back on Earth, and telling him he finally got a real hug and didn't misread the situation, but then another hot rush of pain swam through him. He was lucky he was being held, or else his legs would've given out from underneath him.

He was aware of Mr Stark saying something above him, but it was muffled and Peter was a bit preoccupied with trying not to die from whatever was wrong with him.

Wait.

Trying not to die.

Die.

Oh god, he was going to die. He didn’t want to die. He had school, he had a Spanish test on Monday! What about Ned? And MJ? And Aunt May? Oh jeeze, nobody would even know if he died, nobody would be able to find his body, he’d just vanished on a field trip oh my god he was going to die.

He glanced at his hand and felt his heart stutter. His newfound “Spidey Sense” as he’d been calling it had all the hairs on his body stand on edge. His hand was... evaporating. There was no other word for it. He was going to die. This was it, he was going to die in freaking space, he was going to die oh my god help please he doesn’t want to die-

“I- I don’t want to go,” he whimpered.

Through suddenly tear-filled eyes, he looked up at Mr Stark and saw the look of sorrow and guilt staring down at him. All sensation had vanished from his body, but he felt the constant call of danger from all around him. How could he stop this? Maybe something in the new suit had a medical section? He should ask Mr Stark, he could fix it. He could fix anything. He turned to ask him and-

Oh. He couldn’t see clearly any more. When did that happen? He could blurrily make out Mr Stark holding him up by the armpits, but he couldn’t feel it at all. That’s weird. He should be able to feel his body. Not even the heat from Mr Stark's suit was present (or would it be cold? It was metal, so should it be cold?).

He didn't want to die. He's a teenager. Please.

He was shaking, and frantically repeating himself. He couldn't make himself stop. What was happening?

“I don't wanna go, I don't know what's happening, I don't... Mr Stark...”

He was a kid. He still hadn’t finished high school. Ha, there he was thinking about high school when he’s dying. Dying. He’s fading out of existence, literally. He would do anything for another day. Just one more. He wouldn’t waste it, he promised. He’d do anything. Just don’t kill him. Don’t let him die. Don’t let him fade away to nothing please, Mr Stark, help. He just wanted to live. Why was this happening?

He was crying, full-on ugly sobbing and he was barely coherent. He could feel himself fading. Flakes of himself were flying off in the wind or falling to the ground, or disappearing. He couldn’t see where it was going. He didn’t want to see. He couldn’t focus on anything. His hearing was all but gone, he could distantly hear the gasping of his breath, but even that was fading.

He sank lower in Mr Stark’s arms, and closed his eyes. He thought of home, of everything he would miss, among crushing waves of terror and hysteria. Home cooked dinners, dumb inside jokes with his friends, the feeling in his stomach when he looked at his not-so-secret crush, acing school tests, listening to music, watching his favourite shows, hugs, waking up in the morning feeling warm, safe, and content, being held...

He heard nothing as he faded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's very late (and a little bit of a cop-out since it's just an edited version of a different fic I wrote but it works) but it's done.

**Author's Note:**

> I write this as part of a project I'm doing where I write at least 750 words a day. Enjoy.


End file.
